NCJ Number
224091
Journal
Child and Youth Services Volume: 30 Issue: 1/2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 1-140
Date Published
2008
Length
140 pages
Annotation
This special issue examines the existential and vocational questions associated with youth workers’ moments of not-knowing what to do.
Abstract
The issue presents a phenomenological investigation of how youth workers experience moments of not-knowing what to do, identifies five central themes of the experience, and makes recommendations for improved youth work practice and supervision. Chapter 1 presents the research question and its significance to the field of American youth work. Chapter 2 provides a context for the concept of not-knowing, including a discussion of how the concept was framed. Chapter 3 provides an introduction to phenomenological research, including its theoretical foundations and procedures. Chapter 4 presents brief biographical sketches of 12 youth workers who participated in a phenomenological investigation of the experience of self in moments of not-knowing what to do. Chapters 5 through 9 each present one of the five themes associated with youth workers’ experiences of not-knowing what to do: the paralysis of stuckness, the loss of control and features of despair, humiliation and the fear of being found out, questions of vocation, and not-knowing gives way to knowing; discussions of youth workers’ actual experiences and description of not-knowing, including not only their physical reactions to the events but also the meanings they made of their stuckness after the fact. Chapter 10 connects the theoretical discussion and description of not-knowing to recommendations for practical action; four lessons learned from the research are presented. From these lessons, recommendations are provided for front-line youth workers, supervisors, and the development of the profession as a whole. Notes, references, and appendix